It was a Thanksgiving holiday box office more filled than usual with PG movies. But the vampires and werewolves of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1" ruled domestic multiplexes for the second straight weekend, taking $62.3 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday period, according to studio estimates.
Disney's "The Muppets" was the only family film to make a dent at the box office, debuting to a solid $42 million.
Warner's disappointing "Happy Feet Two" finished No. 3 in its second weekend, taking an estimated $18.5 over the five days.
Sony/Aardman's animated "Arthur Christmas" finished No. 4, with an estimated $17 million and the Paramount/GK Films "Hugo" is No. 5 with $15.3 million.
Both expensive films only matched or narrowly exceeded low pre-release estimates.
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The overall box office was down 12 percent compared to the five-day Thanksgiving weekend last year.
Last year, Disney's animated "Tangled" opened to $68.7 million over the five-day holiday, going up against weekend No. 2 of Warner's penultimate "Harry Potter" movie and weekend No. 4 of DreamWorks Animation's "Megamind."
One distribution executive speculated that the glut of family films oversaturated the market this weekend.
"You had a pretty fragmented audience," Chris Aronson, Fox's senior VP for domestic distribution, told TheWrap. "Comparing it to last year, your No. 2 and No. 3 were 'Tangled' and 'Megamind.' Two family animateds, one Disney, one DreamWorks. And the other top films were more adult offerings."
There were a few offerings for grown-ups. The Weinstein Company opened "My Week With Marilyn" and "The Artist" in limited release. "Marilyn" grossed a solid $2 million in 244 locations and "The Artist" took in about $210,000 in four theaters.
Fox Searchlight's R-rated "The Descendants," in 433 theaters, spent its second weekend in a row in the top 10. It grossed an estimated $9.2 million over five days and $7.2 million over three days.
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Dave Hollis, Disney's distribution chief, told TheWrap that he had expected the PG-rated "The Muppets" to gross in the upper $30 million range for the five days.
The success, he said, will mean more Muppets across the board.
"The value of 'The Muppets' isn't just about the theatrical run," he said. "It's about how we might take advantage of this across multiple lines of business. This opens the door for us to think about how the Muppets can be showcased in a variety of different ways."
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Hollis said "The Muppets" cost about $45 million to make. The moviegoer survey firm Cinemascore rated it at an "A." And it took in $29.5
